Religion « Yourish.com

06/24/2009

Saudi ERA Watch, AP whitewash edition

Filed under: AP Media Bias, Feminism, Religion, Saudi Arabia — Tags: AP Media Bias, Feminism, Saudi Arabia — Meryl Yourish @ 12:00 pm

How cool is this? Wow, a member of the Saudi royal family says he sure does hope that someday, little girls in Saudi Arabia can grow up to play sports! (But not with men. Never with men.)

Appealing to a powerful Saudi prince, an 8-year-old girl asked why she was not allowed to play sports in school like boys. She got an unexpected response: The prince said he hoped government schools for girls would allow playing fields.

And how cool is this? The AP is taking this mealy-mouthed, patronizing anti-feminist pap and pushing it like it’s the equivalent of America’s Title IX.

The stand taken by Prince Khaled al-Faisal, governor of the holy city of Mecca and one of the most senior second-generation members of the royal family, on the controversial issue is the strongest official endorsement so far of women’s sports and a sign the government may be tilting toward opening up on that front.

And exactly why is it such obvious bullshit? Because in the next breath, the AP reports this:

Physical education classes are banned in state-run girls schools in conservative Saudi Arabia. Saudi female athletes are not allowed to participate in the Olympics. Women’s games and marathons have been canceled when the powerful clergy get wind of them. And some clerics even argue that running and jumping can damage a woman’s hymen and ruin her chances of getting married.

“Conservative”? Ronald Reagan was a conservative. A better description of Saudi Arabia would be “feudal.” Except I’m pretty sure that women had more rights in feudal Europe than they have in modern Saudi Arabia. And lest you think that the prince was suggesting any form of equality for women, think again:

According to local newspapers, the 8-year-old girl told Khaled: “I ask myself why is it that only boys can play sports and have courts while we girls don’t have anything?”

“I hope to see sports courts for girls inside girls’ schools,” the prince responded, according to Al-Hayat newspaper.

He said if this were to happen, it will be in coordination with the Education Ministry and “according to certain mechanisms that take into consideration women’s privacy in this country.”

Yes, the fabled privacy excuse. Because given half the chance, women in Muslim lands won’t throw off the shackles of repression and try to live normal lives. Oh, wait. Yes, they will (cf: Afghanistan, Iraq).

But when you live with medieval freaks like these, well, your choices are limited:

A statement issued by three senior clerics last month lashed out at Saudis who demand the opening of more gyms for women, saying such a move would “open the doors wide for spreading decadence.”

“It is well-known that only women with no shame will go to these clubs,” said the statement signed by clerics Abdul-Rahman al-Barrack, Abdul-Aziz al-Rajihi and Abdullah bin Jibrin.

In a recent column in Al-Watan newspaper, Sheik Abdullah al-Mani, an adviser at the royal court, said virgins should think twice before engaging in sports.

“Soccer or basketball require running and jumping and these could damage (a woman’s) the hymen,” he wrote. “If she marries, her husband will … think that her hymen was destroyed as a result of an (immoral) action.”

“He will either divorce her or lose confidence in her chastity,” he added.

But sure, let’s respect their culture and traditions. Because practices like these simply cry out for respect.

Shyeah.

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06/11/2009

CAIR doesn’t really care

Filed under: AP Media Bias, Anti-Semitism, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 9:00 am

The AP laps up everything that CAIR gives them, even when CAIR lies about caring about anti-Semitism.

Added to the lead of the AP news article on the Holocaust Museum shooting are these words:

The assailant was hospitalized in critical condition, leaving behind a sprawling investigation by federal and local law enforcement and expressions of shock from the Israeli government and a prominent Muslim organization.

A quick trip to CAIR’s website finds this:

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 6/10/09) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today condemned a shooting incident at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., during which a security guard and the alleged gunman were reportedly wounded.

The AP takes the quote word for word out of CAIR’s press release, and puts it right after the quote from the Israeli government. Please note the placement, because it is done deliberately to evoke a narrative: Muslims condemn this anti-Semitic attack. And note that in the full quote, CAIR can’t simply condemn anti-Semitism. They don’t stand simply with the Jewish community over this attack on Jews. They make it about themselves.

In a statement from Israel’s government, Information and Diaspora Minister Yuli Edelstein said the shooting was “further proof that anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial have not passed from the world.”

And the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a prominent American Muslim organization, said in a statement, “We condemn this apparent bias-motivated attack and stand with the Jewish community and with Americans of all faiths in repudiating the kind of hatred and intolerance that can lead to such disturbing incidents.”

Funny, but you don’t see CAIR condemning Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust conferences, or regular calls to destroy Israel. You do find CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, however. That trial ended in conviction, as well as extremely long sentences for the defendants.

As for the reason CAIR’s condemnations are never exactly quite right, well, take a look at the video at this link. CAIR was founded by Muslims with links to terrorist organizations.

And last, the AP still hasn’t bothered to fact-check the “prominence” of CAIR:

According to tax documents obtained by The Times, the number of reported members spiraled down from more than 29,000 in 2000 to less than 1,700 in 2006, a loss of membership that caused the Muslim rights group’s annual income from dues to drop from $732,765 in 2000, when yearly dues cost $25, to $58,750 last year, when the group charged $35.

The organization instead is relying on about two dozen individual donors a year to contribute the majority of the money for CAIR’s budget, which reached nearly $3 million last year.

CAIR, of course, will not divulge the names of their donors. Gee. I wonder why.

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06/05/2009

Analysis: mainstreaming Jewish conspiracy theories

Filed under: AP Media Bias, Israeli Double Standard Time, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 8:00 am

If you were to read this without knowing the source, where would you suspect it originated? The Arab News? Al-Ahram? Palestinian propaganda rags?

Among the long list of problems that cloud American relations with the Islamic world, none is more troubling in the Muslim streets and halls of power than U.S. ties to Israel and massive support for the Jewish state in the heart of the Arab Middle East.

On that, Obama gave no ground, declaring U.S. bonds with Israel “unbreakable.”

But as he presses Netanyahu for concessions, Obama has to be looking over his shoulder toward the powerful Israeli lobby in the United States and the many deeply conservative Christian organizations that back Israeli policy without question. Both can make big political trouble for an American president who tips too far from Israel.

Obama appears willing to gamble that pressure on Netanyahu will not produce damaging blowback, especially with more than three years left before the next U.S. presidential election.

Try again. It’s the AP anaylsis by Steven Hurst. And it’s become increasingly mainstream to blame The Israel Lobby for the lack of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Walt and Mearsheimer, Jimmy Carter, and their team of anti-Israel crybabies have done their job, and done it well. They constantly hammered on the theme that they’re the ones being victimized by The Israel Lobby™, all the while getting their views in op-eds in all of the major news media, and their anti-Israel treatises published and widely distributed. They’ve shifted the blame from Muslim rejectionism to—Israeli settlements.

It’s not the terrorism that prevents peace. It’s not the incitement that goes on daily. It’s not the refusal of the Palestinians, or indeed, any of the Middle East Muslims, to negotiate rather than to make demands (cf: Saudi peace plan, Abbas’ refusal to talk to Netanyahu, Amr Moussa, etc., etc, etc.). It’s not the Palestinian refusal to acknowledge the Jewish origins of Israel (and particularly Jerusalem and the Temple Mount). It’s not the Palestinian refusal to accept a Jewish state as a Jewish state.

No, it’s the settlements. And the Israel Lobby. And the Obama team has apparently completely bought into the settlements argument.

At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel’s right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine’s. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.

So what’s Hurst’s analysis on this point?

An Israeli government statement issued after Obama spoke ignored his calls for a settlement freeze and the creation of an independent Palestinian state - demands that the hawkish Netanyahu continues to reject.

“We share President Obama’s hope that the American effort heralds the beginning of a new era that will bring about an end to the conflict,” the statement said, noting that Israel’s security must be guaranteed.

Do you see the narrative here? Bibi put out a positive statement about an end to the Palestinian conflict, and the AP slams Israel for wanting security guarantees—as if Israel didn’t have a constant threat of terrorism and attacks hanging over her head on a daily basis. But since he didn’t immediately line up behind Obama to agree that Jerusalem should be an international city (read between the lines), that “hawkish” Netanyahu “ignored” Obama and “rejects” the creation of a Palestinian state.

But Obama dwelled most heavily on an Arab-Israeli peace. He spoke 6,000 words in Thursday’s speech, 1,000 about the Mideast conflict.

Yeah, funny how that happens to the best of us. It’s almost like the AP article concentrated entirely on the Israeli side of the problem, and not at all on the Palestinian side.

And the last word? Well. It’s that scary Israel Lobby meme:

“It is easy to point fingers,” the president said. “But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: The only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.”

Easy to say. Harder is overcoming six decades of hatred and bloodshed, and the entrenched interests that eventually will face Obama at home.

The hatred and bloodshed is coming from mostly one side. Granted, Israel is not a nation of saints. But the Muslim nations surrounding Israel went to war five times since 1948 to try to destroy her.

Yes, it’s very easy to point fingers. That’s exactly what the anti-Israel media is doing.

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06/04/2009

One quick comment on the Cairo speech

Filed under: Religion, The One — Meryl Yourish @ 11:00 am

I will have more to say after work, but here’s something to chew on:

The Holy Koran tells us, “O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.”

The Talmud tells us: “The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace.”

The Holy Bible tells us, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God’s vision. Now, that must be our work here on Earth. Thank you. And may God’s peace be upon you.

Why is it that Obama could easily find references to peace in Jewish and Christian texts, but the Koran quote does not contain the word “peace”? I’m not the Islam scholar. But that conclusion makes me wonder if there are any quotes from the Koran using the word “peace” that don’t restrict it to Muslims only.

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06/03/2009

Honesty is the best policy, Israeli Exception Clause version

Filed under: Israeli Double Standard Time, Juvenile Scorn, Religion, Saudi Arabia — Tags: Israel, Muslims, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 10:00 am

“Part of being a good friend is being honest,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with NPR News. “And I think there have been times where we are not as honest as we should be about the fact that the current direction, the current trajectory, in the region is profoundly negative, not only for Israeli interests but also U.S. interests.

So let’s hear Obama get honest with the Saudis, with the Egyptians, with the Palestinians, with the rest of the Arab Muslims. Then let’s hear him get honest with the Pakistani Muslims, with the Muslims in the Phillipines, with the Muslims in China, Russia, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Let’s hear him honestly tell Muslims that:

Non-Muslims get to worship whom and what they please. Suck it up.
You do not get to dictate to non-Muslims that you will kill them if they “offend” your infantile sensibilities about your religion
In that spirit, rational people do not riot over perceived slights to their holy books and figures
Non-Muslims are not lesser beings who deserve fewer rights than Muslims
Non-Muslims have the right to worship in peace in Muslim nations, (and in non-Muslim nations where there are significant Muslim populations)
Jews lived in Israel thousands of years before Mohammed showed his face in the Saudi desert, and Israel is the ancestral home of the Jews.
Likewise, Jerusalem is the ancient heart of Judaism. Suck it up.
Israel is a Jewish state. Suck that up, too.
Women are, and should be treated as, the equal of men. Welcome to the 21st century.
Binding United Nations resolutions are binding on all nations, not just on Israel and the West.
Really, those of us who are non-Muslim are not the least bit interested in your fictional Caliphate. Plans for world domination are so 20th century. Lose the yearning for the good old days; they’re gone forever. Learn a skill. You’ll achieve more.
To the OIC on the UN Human Rights Council: Try looking at your own backyards first before constantly slamming Israel. I sincerely doubt your nations would pass muster even on animal cruelty issues, let alone human rights.
To the Arab and Muslim dictators, kings, princes, emirs, autocrats, and kleptocrats: Goose. Gander. If Palestinians should have self-rule, and free elections, so should Saudis, Yemenis, Egyptians, Syrians, Iranians (without the interference of the Mad Mullahs in choosing whom is allowed to run, there is no free election), etc., etc., etc. Otherwise, feel free to STFU about the centrality of the Palestinians and Israel.
Last, but not least: Colonialism has been over for many, many years, and yet, you’re still blaming it for your societal ills. Get over it, and learn how to put your oil money to good use instead of paying for palaces, planes, and parties. Get a real, job, you lazy bastards.

That’s all for now. But I doubt you’ll find much of what I wrote up there in Obama’s speech tomorrow. Count the Israel references, though. There should be a ton of them. Because when it comes to being “honest” with friends, apparently, the honesty only counts when it’s directed towards Israel. Once again, the Exception Clause is in play. That’s where you add “Except for Israel” (or “Jews”) to the end of whatever is being said, or when what is being said applies solely to Israel (or Jews), and to no one else.

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06/01/2009

Obama, Muslims, and the AP narrative

Filed under: AP Media Bias, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 8:00 am

In an article about how Obama must kowtow to Muslims, several things leap out at me, but this paragraph most of all:

If Obama wants to rally Muslim support to rein in Iran, analysts say, he will have to prove his good intentions elsewhere. In particular, he needs to move to end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, lands the Palestinians want for a state.

The Gaza Strip has had no Israeli residents in it for nearly four years. How long will it take to get AP’s writers and editors to stop writing that it is occupied?

The other graf:

After the Bush years, one of the darkest periods in U.S.-Muslim relations, there is now a chance for reconciliation, said Shibley Telhami, a Mideast scholar at the University of Maryland who conducts annual public opinion surveys around the Middle East.

Huh. One of the darkest periods in U.S.-Muslim relations? Darker, even, than the Iranian hostage crisis in the 70s? Than the murder of hundreds of Marines in Lebanon in the 80s? The first WTC terror attack on American soil in the 90s?

And why exactly would the Bush years be a “dark” period for U.S.-Muslim relations? Could it be, perhaps, the thousands murdered on 9/11 by Muslim terrorists that may have made us think that Muslims had a problem with the U.S.?

What I tire of in all of these analyses is that explicit angle that somehow, the U.S. is at fault for Muslims that hate us, instead of radical Islam raising these people to believe that they can get their way through murder and jihad. And of course, there is always the Israel angle. They hate us, you see, because we favor the lone democracy in the Middle East.

And there is doubt the U.S. president can change entrenched foreign policy, particularly what is perceived in the Muslim world as Washington’s pro-Israeli bias. What Muslims see as America’s repeated failure to hold Israel to its international obligations is a sore point. A construction freeze in Israeli West Bank settlements - Obama wants it, Israel rejects it - is shaping up as a major test.

Not to worry. The pro-Israel bias of the administration seems to be lessening daily. Obama will not be visiting Israel on this trip. Egypt, yes. Saudi Arabia, yes. But not Israel.

And the AP is also following the media narrative:

The president’s initial actions have earned him good will. He’s reached out to Muslims in an interview with an Arab satellite TV station, in video message to Iranians on the Persian new year and in a speech to the Turkish parliament. He ordered Guantanamo prison closed within a year and said the U.S. would not engage in torture, reversing two Bush policies seen here as having targeted Muslims.

He’s not closing Guantanamo, and he’s reserved the right to use tactics like waterboarding if the situation demands it. But let’s pretend he reversed the Bush policies and just not use our objective reporting skills, shall we?

The article is titled “Muslims want tangible change on Mideast from Obama”. You know what? I want to see tangible change from Muslims. I want to see an end to the kleptocracies. I want to see an end to “honor” killings. I want to see women granted equal rights in all Islamic nations. I want to see religions other than Islam allowed the same freedoms in Muslim nations as Islam is allowed here in the U.S. I want to see Muslims own up to the terrorists in their religion and stop excusing them as justified. And I want to see an end to Muslim nations calling for Sharia all over the world.

Think I’ll get even a fraction of those demands?

Of course not.

Think Obama will kowtow to Muslim demands?

He is already.

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05/21/2009

Jerusalem of Gold on Jerusalem Day

Filed under: Israel, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 12:30 pm

It’s Jerusalem Day in Israel. Word that the Obama plan for peace in the Middle East includes making the Old City an international zone is bringing derision from all sides. I’m actually wondering if Obama is truly that stupid, and tone-deaf, that he thinks offering the 1948 partition plan in 2009 would be a step forward—although this isn’t the 1948 plan, exactly. Because in 1948, the Palestinians didn’t get the eastern half.

The revised plan is also said to call for east Jerusalem to be made the new state’s capital – with the Palestinian Authority’s flag waving over it official institutions and the UN banner waving over the Old City and places sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

I’m of the opinion that this is not the official plan. Or if it is, it will not have this in the final version. But in the meantime, let’s hear from the Palestinians what they think about this:

“The Palestinian position on these issues is very clear,” explained another PA official. “We insist on the right of return for all refugees on the basis of United Nations resolution 194, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with all of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, as its capital.”

Uh-huh. Now let’s hear from some Israelis. Shimon Peres:

“Geographically, Jerusalem has no distinction; no river runs through it, there is no beach nearby and the mountains surrounding are not extraordinarily high. But there is no city in the world with a historical wealth to match Jerusalem, both political history and spiritual history.”

“Holy to half of humanity, Jerusalem is religiously open to all faiths and its spiritual sovereignty is God’s alone,” the president said.

[...] “Jerusalem was, and remains Israel’s capital. Israel never had a different capital and Jerusalem has never been the capital of another people. Fierce battles took place here, more than anywhere in the world. The city charmed rulers who wanted control of it, it drew in peoples who wanted to force the city to serve their purposes. Legions sieged its walls, and the Jewish people had to defend its spirit as well as its alleyways time after time. At times Jerusalem almost met its undoing but it remained the inextinguishable hope of the Jewish people, which pledged ‘never to forget thee, O Jerusalem.’”

Peres also spoke of the pluralism the city enjoys under Israeli rule: “When Jerusalem was in non-Jewish hands, Jews were not allowed to pray at the holy places, while under Jewish rule, it is open to all faiths and all forms of prayer.”

Silvan Shalom:

“Jerusalem is the beating heart of the Jewish people. Jerusalem is a symbol. Jerusalem is protected by the current government and previous governments’ clear policy. We will never give up Jerusalem. Never.”

Benjamin Netanyahu:

“Unified Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Jerusalem always has been and always will be ours and it will never be divided again,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to the sounds of roaring applause.

“I stand here today… saying what I said in my visit to the US: Jerusalem will never be divided again. Only Israeli sovereignty over the city would ensure the freedom of religion for the three faiths, and it is the only thing that can guarantee that all minorities and congregations could continue living in it,” he said.

Posession is nine-tenths of the law, they say. Israel will not give up Jerusalem. Today, the song below will pervade the Israeli airwaves and gatherings.

Naomi Shemer, via Ofra Haza, on why Jerusalem will never be taken again:

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05/17/2009

Jewish/Israeli Blog Carnival #217

Filed under: Israel, Jews, Religion — Jack @ 2:34 pm

If you want to get a sense of what sorts of issues, thoughts and ideas are buzzing through the Jewish/Israeli blogosphere you need to go check out our blog carnival.

It is called Haveil Havalim and is one of the oldest blog carnivals around. This week we are pleased to announce the 217th edition.

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05/12/2009

Saudi ERA Watch: Women should be slapped

Filed under: Feminism, Juvenile Scorn, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 1:30 pm

Once again, the Saudis prove that they’re stuck square in the middle of the seventh century.

A Saudi judge told a conference on domestic violence that a man has the right to slap a wife who spends money wastefully and said women were as much to blame as men for increased spousal abuse, a Saudi newspaper reported.

The remarks do not carry the weight of law, as they were made out of court. But such public pronouncements by Saudi judges - who are also Islamic clerics - are often widely respected.

Yeah, this is the nation whose leaders Bush and Obama have both bowed to. This is the country that got Barbara Walters, Nancy Pelosi, and Laura Bush to wear headscarves. This is the nation that is supplying the funds to the Wahabbi mosques seeded throughout the nation. Boy, what a great bunch of guys!

“If a person gives 1,200 Saudi riyals ($320) to his wife and she spends 900 riyals ($240) to purchase an abaya (head-to-toe robe) from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment,” Judge Hamad Al-Razine was quoted as saying by the English-language Arab News newspaper on Sunday.

Let me translate that into Americanese: “Bitch! You spent too much money on your tent!”

Okay, maybe I elaborated a bit. Substitute “dress” for “tent.”

But gee, what a great country. Not.

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05/08/2009

Palestinian Wah Machine in good order for Pope

Filed under: Religion, palestinian politics — Meryl Yourish @ 9:00 am

The Palestinians are apparently physically incapable of doing anything but complaining about, well, everything. The hypocrites who are responsible for the mass emigration of Christians from the West Bank and Gaza are pretending that they give a damn about Christian holy sites while the Pope visits Israel.

Palestinian officials are using Pope Benedict XVI’s visit next week to spotlight their disputes with Israel, and in doing so, are drawing criticism that they are playing politics with an event meant to bridge differences in the Holy Land.

Palestinian leaders this week made public a long-simmering dispute over Israeli plans to demolish part of a Catholic church that was allegedly built illegally. That followed an argument with Israel over a plan to host the pope in an outdoor theater the Palestinians were building alongside Israel’s massive West Bank separation barrier.

Note that the AP’s adjective, “massive,” suits only a tiny proportion of the separation fence. Most of it is, well, a fence. Less than ten percent is concrete. But of course, the AP puts that fact far below the lead (above).

[...] On Wednesday, Rafiq Husseini, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told a news conference the pontiff “should come to see the suffering of the Palestinian people and not just to see the stones and historical churches in Palestine.”

Husseini said Palestinian officials would raise a list of grievances with the pope, including Israeli restrictions on access of Palestinian Muslims and Christians to places of worship in Jerusalem.

And again, the Palestinians don’t give a damn about Christian holy sites, except to use as grievances against Israel. For instance, a two-year-old demolition order that’s being negotiated between Israel and Christian authorities is suddenly a Palestinian grievance:

Abdel Qader did not explicitly say the pope’s visit was behind his decision to announce the demolition order now, two years after Israeli authorities issued the order.

But both Jerusalem City Hall and church officials said they have been working quietly to resolve the dispute and criticized Abdel Qader for taking the issue public. Both sides suggested the church would be able to seek retroactive approval for the additional floors, which contain rooms for monks and church workers.

And the Israelis are calling them on it:

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor accused the Palestinians of trying to reap “propaganda gains” from the pope’s visit. “It will serve the cause of peace much better if this visit is taken for what it is, a pilgrimage, a visit for the cause of peace and unity,” he said.

As for the Pope himself:

The pope will start his five-day visit Monday after a stop in Jordan over the weekend. He said he will be visiting as a “pilgrim of peace.”

Yeah, but the Wah Machine is in full crisis mode. Expect more Wah stories from the Wah-er services.

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04/23/2009

Religion of tolerance vandalizes Jewish shrine—again

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 9:00 am

The famed Islamic tolerance for other religions reared its ugly face in Nablus last night, when Joseph’s Tomb—a place supposedly sacred to Islam as well as to Judaism—was vandalized. Since Nablus is in the West Bank, and there are no Jews in Nablus, the perpetrators are pretty easy to figure out.

Upon entering the tomb they found it had been defaced – the headstone smashed and swastikas sprayed on the walls, as well as graffiti of a blood-dripping sward over a Star of David, and another “trampled” by a boot.

Some reported seeing visible boot prints all over the compounds, which they claim are consistent with the Palestinian police standard issue boots.

The timing of the vandalization makes it highly likely it was done specifically for this reason:

Hundreds of Jewish worshipers who arrived at Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus overnight were stunned to find the compound severely vandalized – yet again.

[...] Wednesday night’s visit was approved by the proper military authorities and the IDF provided the worshippers with an escort. The group which entered the compound was made up of some 500 people.

The Palestinian Muslims have no intention of respecting Jewish holy sites. The Jordanians didn’t when they controlled west Jerusalem. The Palestinians have desecrated Joseph’s Tomb time and time again.

This is not a people interested in living “side by side, in peace” with Israelis. Or at least, not with the Jewish—and Christian—Israelis.

You will see no word of this on the AP wires. Count on it.

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03/09/2009

Saudi ERA Watch: 75-year-old widow to be whipped

Filed under: Feminism, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 5:53 pm

The Saudis have sentenced a 75-year-old widow to jail and lashes for the crime of “mingling” with men who are not related. Except that one of them was. The men were sentenced and whipped.

A 75-year-old widow in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in jail for mingling with two young men who are not close relatives, drawing new criticism for the kingdom’s ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.

The woman’s lawyer told The Associated Press on Monday that he would appeal the verdict against Khamisa Sawadi, who is Syrian but was married to a Saudi. The attorney, Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, said the verdict issued March 3 also demands that Sawadi be deported after serving her sentence.

[...] The newspaper Al-Watan said the woman met with the two 24-year-old men last April after she asked them to bring her five loaves of bread at her home in al-Chamil, a city north of the capital, Riyadh.

Al-Watan identified one man as Fahd al-Anzi, the nephew of Sawadi’s late husband, and the other as his friend and business partner Hadiyan bin Zein. It said they were arrested by the religious police after delivering the bread. The men also were convicted and sentenced to lashes and prison.

The court said it based its ruling on “citizen information” and testimony from al-Anzi’s father, who accused Sawadi of corruption.

“Because she said she doesn’t have a husband and because she is not a Saudi, conviction of the defendants of illegal mingling has been confirmed,” the court verdict read.

March 8 was International Women’s Day. Just a few days ago, the AP presented a whitewash piece on how the Saudis are allowing women to do more normal things. I guess asking your nephew to bring you food because you’re 75 years old and a widow isn’t one of the things that the Saudis will allow women to do.

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International Women’s Day, Israel vs. the Muslim world

Filed under: Feminism, Israel, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

In Israel on International Women’s Day, former president Moshe Katsav was indicted for rape.

In Saudi Arabia, the AP flacks for the kingdom point out that women can now attend the Riyadh International Book Fair for more than the two half-days they attended last year—but they can’t give autographed copies of their books to men.

In Pakistan’s Swat Valley, women stay home for fear of being killed by the Taliban.

In Jordan, men are still protected by law from harsh punishments for “honor” killings of their wives or female relatives.

In Iran, women can still be whipped and stoned for not covering up with a hijab. Or stoned to death for adultery.

In Malaysia, clerics issue fatwas banning yoga.

In Gaza, besides using women as human shields, Hamas has been recruiting them for suicide attacks on Israelis.

In LaLa Land, a few truckloads of female fools, including Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin, were finally let through the Gaza border by Egypt to support—of course—the Palestinians. There were no Code Pink marches in support of women in Islamic countries facing discrimination and death for being women.

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03/02/2009

The price for killing a Yemeni Jew: It’s only money

Filed under: Religion, Terrorism — Meryl Yourish @ 9:00 am

Yemeni courts ruled that the murder of a Yemeni Jew by a jihadi who cried out “Jew, accept the message of Islam” before shooting him five times was caused by “mental incompetence.” The murderer was ordered to pay a fine.

A Yemeni court has ruled that a Muslim on trial for killing a Yemeni Jew is mentally incompetent and ordered h to pay a fine for the fatal shooting.

[...] Monday’s ruling says the defendant – Abdel Aziz Yehia Hamoud al-Abdi, a retired pilot in the Yemeni air force – is “mentally unstable.” It orders he pay a fine of 50.5 million riyals, or about $250,000.

Funny how all those jihadis who murder Jews keep on being deemed mentally incompetent, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

According to the security official, the suspect has admitted to killing Nahari, and told his interrogators that “these Jews must convert to Islam”.

Unless the Yemen authorities are saying that Jihadis are insane. I don’t think that’s what they’re saying. But this is, after all, the nation that keeps letting al Qaeda terrorists go free. We should not be surprised that they allow their citizens to murder Jews.

No wonder Yemeni Jews are secretly emigrating to Israel.

Once again, the world is silent as yet another ancient Jewish community is ethnically cleansed by its Muslim hosts.

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02/07/2009

Saudis: Religious freedom for me, but not for thee

Filed under: Israeli Double Standard Time, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 1:00 pm

The Saudis are standing firm on their refusal to allow any religion besides Islam to be publicly observed in Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi Arabian official says mosques can be the only places of worship in his country, rejecting pressure to change heavy restrictions on religious besides Islam.

Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites, implements a strict version of Islamic law.

It told a United Nations meeting that the kingdom allows other religions in private.

But the vice president of the Saudi human rights commission said Friday that establishing houses of worship for non-Islamic religions was too sensitive an issue.

Zaid Al-Hussain tells the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that there could be no debate. Other countries have urged Saudi Arabia to abolish laws that breach basic human rights such as freedom from discrimination on the basis of religion or belief.

Say, you think the Human Rights Council is going to issue any kind of statement against the Saudis on this? Or are they too busy condemning Israel for, well, everything?

The next time you hear anyone call Israel a theocracy, laugh at them and point. Then tell them about this.

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Holocaust denying Bishop denies denial of denying

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 10:53 am

To recap: The Pope un-excommunicates a bishop of a conservative fringe group that seems like just the kind of guy I’d like to have dinner with (provide I can bring an aluminum bat with me and use it at will, like every time he says there was no Holocaust). The Pope, upon discovering his newly-un-excommunicated bishop is a pretty disgusting Holocaust denier, trying to make amends with Jewish groups and others who are horrified that the Pope’s vetting process is apparently just as bad as the Obama administration’s, tells the bishop to recant. So here’s the recantation:

Williamson made clear he does not plan to comply immediately, the weekly Der Spiegel reported. “Since I see that there are many honest and intelligent people who think differently, I must look again at the historical evidence,” the British bishop was quoted as saying.

“It is about historical evidence, not about emotions,” he added, according to the report. “And if I find this evidence, I will correct myself. But that will take time.”

And just to make sure you really understand the mendacity of this man:

The magazine suggested that he could make a personal visit to the former Auschwitz death camp. Williamson replied: “I will not go to Auschwitz,” it said.

No. Because why would you go and see with your own eyes the evidence of the gas chambers, and of the genocide? That would interfere with your ability to pretend to be a reasonable man.

I actually don’t give a damn who the Pope communicates or excommunicates. It’s not my religion. He can do what he wants. But when he brings a POS like this back into the fold, he can’t expect to have no consequences from the Jewish world. It is bishops like Williamson who caused the deaths of Jews by Catholics over the last two millennia. And it really hasn’t been that long since Catholic priests led the charge against Jews in Europe and in America. Poland is still full of Catholics in high places who blame the Jews—of which there are about 25,000 remaining of the millions who lived there in 1938—for all of Poland’s problems.

Bishop Williamson may say the words that the Pope requires. But he won’t believe them, and he won’t mean them. So for him, a chorus of the Yourish.com mantra (Anti-Semites of the world, just die already) is in order, with an extra special helping of: Kiss my shapely Jew ass. Deny the holocaust. Be a bishop. And eff off.

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01/24/2009

Saudi Arabian Hypocrisy

Filed under: Israel, Politics, Religion, Terrorism, World — Jack @ 7:35 pm

So that wacky prince thinks that he can lecture President Obama about the peace process.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN — Relations between Arab nations and the United States hinge on American leaders living up to their rhetoric about commitment to lasting peace in the Mideast, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal told CNN Saturday.”President Obama, in his statement yesterday, said that he’s genuinely making the effort to accomplish a peaceful resolution,” al-Faisal, who served as Saudi ambassador to the United States from 2005 to 2007, told CNN’s Nic Robertson in an interview Friday.

“We’ve heard this before,” al-Faisal said. “We need to see implementation. We need to see facts on the ground change. We need to see rhetoric change. We need to see presence on the ground.”

He said he was encouraged by Obama’s appointment of George Mitchell as Mideast envoy, saying, “Mitchell comes with a track record of success.” But he suggested Mitchell spend some time in the region to make real progress.

“American envoys, when they’ve dealt with the Middle East, have always come and gone,” he said.

“I think it would be wise for Sen. Mitchell … to pitch his tent in Ramallah or in Jerusalem, let’s say, and spend a year, two, perhaps three years on the ground dealing with the daily aspects of making peace there.” The United States’ backing of Israel, in light of the latest Israeli military operations in Gaza, does not improve its standing in the Arab world, he said.

“What happened in Gaza, people have called it a tragedy,” al-Faisal said. “I’d go further and say it was a catastrophe in all aspects of that word. The killing and the destruction was so barbaric by Israel, and unprecedented in a such a small area like Gaza.

Hmm…The Arabic expression for bite me comes to mind. The chutzpah it takes to say this sort of stuff with a straight face is incredible. To place all of the blame on Israel and to wave his finger in Obama’s face is unmitigated gall.

It is really hard for me take any sort of Saudia Arabian peace initiative seriously. They are morally bankrupt, two faced and exceptionally intolerant to people who do not practice Islam. So when I see them try to lecture us or anyone about what we should do I roll my eyes.

Let’s take a quick look at a recent story about child marriage.

(CNN) — The debate over the controversial practice of child marriage in Saudi Arabia was pushed back into the spotlight this week, with the kingdom’s top cleric saying that it’s OK for girls as young as 10 to wed.

“It is incorrect to say that it’s not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger,” Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s grand mufti, said in remarks quoted Wednesday in the regional Al-Hayat newspaper. “A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she’s too young are wrong and they are being unfair to her.”

The issue of child marriage has been a hot-button topic in the deeply conservative kingdom in recent weeks.

Late last month, a Saudi judge refused to annul the marriage of an 8-year-old girl to a 47-year-old man.

This is sick and wrong. There is no justification for this. There is no spinning this to say that it is ok because it is culturally acceptable or religiously ok. Child sacrifiee and slavery once were considered to be acceptable and we don’t do that.

Want another example of their barbarism and why we cannot allow them to dictate morality. How about the time when the religious police murdered school girls fleeing a fire at their school.

Saudi Arabia’s religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, according to Saudi newspapers.

In a rare criticism of the kingdom’s powerful “mutaween” police, the Saudi media has accused them of hindering attempts to save 15 girls who died in the fire on Monday.

About 800 pupils were inside the school in the holy city of Mecca when the tragedy occurredAccording to the al-Eqtisadiah daily, firemen confronted police after they tried to keep the girls inside because they were not wearing the headscarves and abayas (black robes) required by the kingdom’s strict interpretation of Islam.

One witness said he saw three policemen “beating young girls to prevent them from leaving the school because they were not wearing the abaya”.

The Saudi Gazette quoted witnesses as saying that the police - known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice - had stopped men who tried to help the girls and warned “it is a sinful to approach them”.

The father of one of the dead girls said that the school watchman even refused to open the gates to let the girls out.

Or what about the fact that 19 of the 911 hijackers were Saudi Arabian. The sad truth is that we can continue to cite chapter and verse about why the Saudis are among the last people to serve as arbiters of morality. Were it not for their oil money they would be a very poor and backwards nation with all of the relevance to the world that the Congo now holds.

If there is justice in this world we will witness the demise of the cash cow that has permitted these intolerant, small minded, bigots and promoters of terror to thrive.

Crossposted on Random thoughts- Do They Have Meaning?

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01/19/2009

Babylonian Torahs smuggled to Israel?

Filed under: Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 9:37 am

Iraq is bent out of shape because Babylonian Torahs may have been smuggled into Israel—where they belong.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry accused security companies working with the American military forces of attempting to smuggle out unique archeological artifacts, stating its concern that Babylonian-era Torah manuscripts were smuggled to Israel, the London-based daily Al-Hayyat reported.

Iraq is searching for over 9,400 artifacts that were lost or stolen since the start of the American-led invasion in May 2003.

Among these items are Babylonian-era Torah manuscripts taken by American forces. The US promised it would return the manuscripts in two years after their renovation, but there was “information pointing to the possibility that they had been smuggled to Israel,” Gen. (ret.) Widah Nas’rat of the Interior Ministry’s Criminal Investigations Department told Al-Hayyat.

I’m not seeing the problem here. There are, like, three Jews left in Iraq, all elderly, all near death’s door. What do Muslims want with our Torah? To put it on display to prove in their Jew-free country how tolerant they are of our religion?

I hope they are in Israel. That’s where a Babylonian-era Torah belongs—with the people who live by its teachings.

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01/17/2009

Religion of peace and tolerance closes only synagogue left in Indonesia

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 5:00 am

Those tolerant Muslims are showing the world just how tolerant they really are.

Gaza war fuels anti-Israeli anger in Indonesia
Islamic hard-liners enraged by Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip marched to the synagogue’s gates chanting, “Go to hell Israel!”

The only Jewish religious site in the world’s most populous Muslim state — which has no rabbi and only a few followers — then closed its doors.

Across Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan, sentiments are running high about the conflict, fueled by disturbing TV footage of Palestinian casualties.

“This is the way to show our solidarity for the Palestinian people and to condemn the Israeli attacks,” said Abdusshomad Buchori, a local leader of the Ulema Council, which is pushing for the permanent closure of Beth Hashem synagogue in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city.

“If Israel refuses to stop its attacks and oppression of the Palestinian people, we don’t need to defend (the synagogue’s) presence here,” said Buchori, who led about 100 hard-liners to the synagogue, where they burned an Israeli flag.

Because it’s not anti-Semitism, it’s anti-Zionism, right? That’s right. Because the AP calls it anti-Israel anger, it must be so.

The woman who has run the synagogue since the 1970s went underground after the Jan. 7 incident, in which Buchori also threatened to drive any remaining Jews out of town.

Let’s not be modest. They really want to kill them.

And here’s an example of the AP really reaching to make two things that are not alike just the same:

The incident was not unique: An outlet of the American fried chicken chain KFC was shut on Sulawesi island after protesters upset with Washington’s Middle East policies hurled chairs and overturned tables. And thousands have rallied in the capital, Jakarta, waving Palestinian flags and shouting insults outside the U.S. Embassy.

Right, because shutting down the sole remaining synagogue in the world’s most populous Muslim state is just like shutting down a KFC. Or waving flags and shouting insults.

In the one case, you’re threatening Jews because Israel is the Jewish State, thus giving Indonesian Jews the mantle of collective behavior that Muslims so love to shed when it comes to blaming all Muslims for the violent behavior of some. And in the other cases, well, you’re yelling at a fried chicken shop and an embassy. Yeah. Those things are exactly alike.

This is a frightening time to be Jewish, no matter where in the world you live.

In every generation, they rise up against us, but the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hands.

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01/16/2009

MacLeod-ing the issue

Filed under: Jews, Juvenile Scorn, Media Bias, Music, Religion — Soccerdad @ 11:00 am

The trio of Scott MacLeod, Tim McGirk and Andrew Lee Butters who write for Time Magazine might have the worst collection of anti-Israel activists writing for any American publication. I’ll call them the “terror troika,” given their enthusiasm for Hamas. MacLeod tries his hand at math.

Is the world reacting with sufficient outrage and urgency to the horrendous humanitarian toll in Gaza? When, in just 20 days, the Palestinian people have lost more than 1,000 dead– in per capita terms the equivalent of 30,000 American lives, 10 times the number who died on 9/11? That kind of extrapolation, by the way, is a favorite debate tool of former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. He uses it to drive home how a few hundred Israelis killed in terrorist attacks is a national catastrophe for Israel. Few Palestinians are in doubt that they, too, have unjustly fallen victim to a staggering loss of life.

First of all MacLeod shows that he’s less than scrupulous about accuracy as he quotes casualty figures from Hamas. Stephanie Guttman cites that the inflated death toll when Israel fought Fatah in Jenin to show that the Hamas’s figures are propaganda and that to accept them is to be a dupe. Furthermore, MacLeod condemns Israel by the numbers alone. But let’s take an inflated number. Hamas is now claiming that 42 percent of those killed were civilians. That would mean that the equivalent of 17,500 soldiers were threatening the 860,000 Israelis living within 24 miles of Gaza. That’s roughly 12% of Israel’s population. Clearly the ratio of Hamas terrorists to civilians is higher than the Hamas claim, which was made to convince the incurious. And clearly, regardless of the number of people threatening Israel, no country in the world would tolerate such a situation.

Finally, the question of culpability for the deaths comes up. And again, MacLeod doesn’t care about the dictates of international law.and simply uses number to condemn. As Ralph Peter observed:

Israel hasn’t killed a single civilian in the Gaza Strip. Over a hundred civilians have died, and Israeli bombs or shells may have ended their lives. But Israel didn’t kill them.

Hamas did.

Folks like the “terror troika” don’t apply international law evenly. It can be used a cudgel against Israel. But if it works against Israel’s enemies, then it’s conveniently ignored and numbers substitute for legality.

MacLeod and his colleagues at time are not motivated by a sense of justice. No one could misconstrue facts and law like this by accident. No, they are terrorist cheerleaders and staunch anti-Zionists. They believe that Israel is the one country in the world that is not allowed to defend itself. Most of all they are propagandists in the service of Hamas, they are not reporters.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

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NZ Muslim pub owners: No dogs or Israelis allowed

Filed under: Israel Derangement Syndrome, Religion — Tags: Israel — Meryl Yourish @ 8:30 am

In what has to be the height of irony, an immigrant New Zealand pub owner has forbidden Israelis to patronize his pub until the Gaza operation is over. And he’s not the only one.

An Israeli citizen residing in Kaikoura, New Zealand has informed Ynet Friday that a local pub, the Strawberry Tree, placed a sign outside its door reading, “Israelis not welcome before shelling (in Gaza) stops”.

Two other Israeli tourists encountered a similar restriction at a café located in another part of the country.

The obvious irony of a non-Maori New Zealander decrying the Israeli “occupation” seems to have escaped our Kiwi. There is not a single non-Maori in New Zealand who is not an immigrant or the child of immigrants that stole the island nation from the indigenous people. And there is no other word to use than “stole.” Interestingly, there are no calls to remove the occupation of New Zealand (or Australia) and give the land back to the natives.

The good news is that it’s only a few bigots exhibiting this behavior.

He said the local community has unequivocally condemned the pub owner’s act. “People are calling us (Israelis) to offer their support; they are even saying that the restriction is redolent of the days in which black Americans were banned from public places and even of Nazi Germany.

“The community is made up of many immigrants, and that is why it identifies with us,” he said.

Let’s take a guess at what religion those bigots might be.

The Southland Times reported Friday that two Israeli women, Natalie Bennie and her sister Tamara Shefa, were ordered to leave the Mevlana Café in Invercargill, New Zealand’s southernmost city.

According to the report, the pub’s owner Mustafa Tekinkaya, a Turkish Muslim, told the women he would not serve anyone from Israel “until it stopped killing innocent babies and women in Gaza.”

Perhaps New Zealanders might be interested in boycotting Mustafa’s pub until Muslims stop killing innocent women and children all over the world. And, hey—what’s a proper Muslim doing owning an establishment that serves alcohol?

Bigots and hypocrites. Gotta love ‘em.

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12/31/2008

Dhimmitude

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Jews, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 10:00 am

Certain defenders of Iran are fond of pointing out that Iran has the largest population of Jews in the Middle East outside of Israel. What they never mention, of course, is that Jews are restricted from traveling abroad (they must leave a family member as hostage and cannot take large sums of money out of the country), and that Iran will not allow Jews to observe the Jewish Sabbath, and Muslims are in charge of all Jewish schools.

So when I see a story like this, I don’t believe that it’s anything other than Jews today doing what Jews used to have to do throughout the ages: The bidding of the state that could, at any moment, obliterate the Jewish community.

Members of Iran’s small Jewish community staged a demonstration outside of the United Nations’ office in Tehran, to protest the Israel Defense Forces’ operation in the Gaza Strip.

The official Iranian news agency, IRNA, reported that community members, alongside Jewish parliamentarian Siamak Mara-Sedq, urged Israel to do its part to return quiet and security to the region.

The chairman of Iran’s Jewish Union, Rahmatullah Raafi, said the community had come out in support of the Palestinian people.

“We are here to express out support and sympathy for the Palestinian nation,” he said, adding that Muslim nations could rise up as a single large force against Israel. He also said that the victors of the current conflict were the residents of Gaza.

A people who are under threat cannot be expected to be speaking freely. Which is why I think the Jews of Yemen are behaving like the dhimmis that they have been for millennia, also:

Yemeni Jews have condemned the recent Israeli massacres in the Gaza strip, saying what is happening in the strip is denied by all religions.

Rabbi Yahya said that what the Israeli military is committing in the strip forces Jews in Yemen to stay home in fear of intimidations by some people who don’t like to understand that Yemeni Jews are not part of Israeli military actions in Palestinian territories.

For his part, Jew Suleiman Bin Yaqup said Israeli crimes in Gaza are unacceptable by Yemeni Jews as killing people is unlawful.

Yemen’s tiny Jewish community is in danger of extinction by Jihadis.

Before Israel was created, Jews made no waves, kept their heads down, and publicly went along with whatever the prevailing sentiment was in their country. The Jews were essentially a subject people in every nation (save America), putting up with pretty much everything the host nation dished out, quietly, and without fighting back.

Sadly, the Jews in Iran and Yemen are perfect examples of the Jews of the past. They’re the Jews that Hamas and Fatah want to see in the faux state of Palestine. They’re the Jews that the world sighs for in nostalgia—and in secret. Or maybe not so secret. Because one of the things that the world has been unable to accept these past sixty years is a strong defense of Jews, by Jews, for Jews.

That’s why you have so many people calling for Israel to stop their war against Hamas. Because we’re not the good little dhimmis we were in Europe and Arabia. We’re no longer standing quietly for pogroms and murders.

Don’t tell me how great Jews had it in Muslim lands before Israel was created. That is a lie.

Dhimmis were excluded from public office and armed service, and were forbidden to bear arms. They were not allowed to ride horses or camels, to build synagogues or churches taller than mosques, to construct houses higher than those of Muslims or to drink wine in public. They were not allowed to pray or mourn in loud voices-as that might offend the Muslims. The dhimmi had to show public deference toward Muslims-always yielding them the center of the road. The dhimmi was not allowed to give evidence in court against a Muslim, and his oath was unacceptable in an Islamic court. To defend himself, the dhimmi would have to purchase Muslim witnesses at great expense. This left the dhimmi with little legal recourse when harmed by a Muslim.

The Jews of Iran and Yemen could tell you all about it—if they didn’t fear for their lives for telling the truth.

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12/26/2008

The side of Bethlehem the wire services don’t show you

Filed under: Israel, Media Bias, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 1:00 pm

Here’s an interesting look at the “secure” town of Bethlehem today, and what it was like when it was under IDF control:

It’s been eight years since I last set foot in Bethlehem. As a Jewish Israeli tour guide, I am forbidden by law to endanger myself and go to this once colorful city. Gone are the days when thousands went to Bethlehem. Tourists, pilgrims from around the world, shoppers, and Israeli Arabs and Jews came. Gone are the days when you could eat the best falafel and humous in the little stone building across from Rachel’s Tomb. I remember the bargains. There was the wonderful flea market in the Bethlehem shuk .

[...] WE ATE in all those lovely outdoor cafés in and around Manger Square. We walked around with our tourists and enjoyed the ambiance and atmosphere.

Many times I stayed overnight with my pilgrims on Christmas Eve. A few times we were near Manger Square and I remember the sweet sounds of the choirs which came from all over the world to celebrate Christmas in the city where Jesus was born. Each sang the familiar Christmas carols in its own language. It was glorious. The Catholics came in droves from all over the country. They came for midnight Mass amid great pomp and ceremony and, as a guide, I had the privilege of seeing and participating in many of these celebrations. I often had an opportunity to talk to reporters. Some were just tourists themselves and I tried to make them Zionists. Sometimes they listened. We became friends. Those times are over.

[...] I REMEMBER one morning many years ago, in the ’80s, when I arose early on a Christmas morning. I looked down from my second-floor window overlooking Manger Square. What to my wondering eyes did appear? No, not Santa and his reindeer, but Israeli soldiers all over the square with big blue plastic bags. At the approach of dawn, they were leaning down and filling them with cigarette butts, candy wrappers, leftover food and all the trash the pilgrims and tourists had dropped the night before.

[...] TODAY, BETHLEHEM is a virtual ghost town at night. No one dares venture out. There is no security and no rule of law. Most of the Christians have left, and the few stores and shopkeepers who remain have a hard time making ends meet.

And when the PA has its hands on it unfettered, look for the elimination of Christians there, just as has happened in Gaza. Ninety percent of the 3 million Lebanese Americans are Christian. There’s a reason for that. The religion of tolerance™ is not quite so tolerant as it claims to be.

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Religion of tolerance builds 21st-century ghetto for Jews

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 9:00 am

The Jews of Yemen have been threatened by Islamists. So the few Jews that remain of the millennia-old Jewish community are going to be protected by tye state by being moved to—a ghetto.

Two weeks after the murder of Moshe Yaish Nahari, the brother of Yemen’s Jewish community’s head, the country’s president Ali Abdullah Saleh pledged to build a secured Jewish ghetto in the outskirts of the capital San’a.

The new neighborhood will house the 300 Jews of the Umran province where the murder took place.

Yemen’s president has informed human rights organizations and the heads of the Jewish community in the country of his decision to allocate an area in Sana’s northern suburb for the construction of a residential neighborhood for Jews on the state’s expense.

Any family who decides to move there from Umran will receive $10,000 in compensation.

According to President Saleh, the Jewish neighborhood will be guarded by security forces at all hours.

There are so many things wrong with this picture, it’s difficult to begin. But here’s the first thing that’s wrong: The Jews of Yemen are going to rely on others for their protection. I predict that the Jews of Yemen will be extinct as a result of that policy.

The second thing that’s wrong is the state of Yemen isn’t pursuing the Islamists who are threatening Jews until after Jews have been killed. The people of Yemen are not standing up to the Islamists who are murdering Jews. Not that I expect that to happen—after all, the Koran calls for the murder of Jews, which is why they’re being murdered by Islamists—but it shows the difference between a nation ruled by religion without any real foundation of democracy, and a nation like America, where our citizens rise up in protest of hateful acts and prosecute the haters wherever they’re found.

No one knew why it started, but 12 years ago the town of Billings began to be infiltrated by skinheads and members of racist groups. The tiny minority of Jews, African Americans, and mixed-race families who lived there were immediately targeted for acts of hate. Though the vast majority of residents were white and Christian, they chose to take a principled stand based upon their conviction that an act of hate toward one citizen was an act of hate toward all. Many individuals and groups rose up to respond. For example, the Billings Painters Union offered to repaint for free any houses or businesses that had been spray painted with racial or religious epithets. And members of churches with predominantly white congregations came to the African Methodist Episcopal Church to pray with black neighbors when menacing skinheads began to show up at church services.

But then, as the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah approached, Jews became a special target. Windows in Jewish homes displaying Hanukkah menorahs began to be smashed. Jewish families were advised to remove their menorahs until the perpetrators were caught, but they resisted. And so menorahs continued to be displayed and windows continued to be smashed. Ultimately, in a show of solidarity and support, tens of thousands of Billings residents displayed paper menorahs in their windows.

May I take this moment to say: God Bless America.

There has been no such recorded incident in all of the Middle East, no matter how many times Jews have been threatened, attacked, and murdered. Nor will there be. The Middle East will be free of Jews in another few decades, except for Israel. And Iran, since Iran refuses to let its Jews leave.

The final thing wrong with the Yemeni ghetto: It may be guarded, but it will be attacked, and the Jews in it will be destroyed. Al-Qaeda loves those kinds of targets, and the guards will be poorly-trained Yemenis who will save their own skins rather than stop an attack on the complex.

If the Jews of Yemen wish to survive, they need to leave Yemen. Muslims forced Jews out of their communities throughout the Middle East. Israel’s detractors like to accuse Israel of manipulating anti-Semitic incidents and creating fear in Jewish communities in order to get Jews to emigrate to Israel. But there was no need for that. The Muslims of the Middle East prove, over and over again, that the myth of religious tolerance is just that—a myth.

One last thought: I don’t expect Yemen to do anything about the Islamists in its midst. This is the nation that hosted the Cole attackers; that keeps commuting sentences of Islamist murderers, and that seems to have more jailbreaks by Islamists than any other nation in existence. Which is why I predict an end to the Jews of Yemen. I hope they realize the threat and emigrate before they’re murdered. But the Jewish community of Yemen is doomed.

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Hamas wants to bring crucifixion back to the Holy Land

Filed under: Gaza, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 8:00 am

Hamas passed a bill that will bring Sharia law to Gaza. And the punishments are positively medieval.

According to the bill, approved in its second reading and awaiting a third reading before the approval of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as the Palestinian constitution demands, courts will be able to condemn offenders to a plethora of violent punitive measures in line with Sharia Law.

Such punishments include whipping, severing hands, crucifixion and hanging. The bill reserves death sentences to people who negotiate with a foreign government “against Palestinian interests” and engage in any activity that can “hurt Palestinian morale.”

The vagueness guarantees that you’ll see plenty of death sentences to “collaborators” (or people called that by their enemies). And here’s the beauty part:

According to the report, any Palestinian caught drinking or selling wine would suffer 40 lashes at the whipping post if the bill passes. Thieves caught red-handed would lose their right hand.

Welcome to the seventh century, Gaza! Hope you survive the experience.

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12/25/2008

All I want for Christmas is a mosque

Filed under: Iran, Religion — Tags: Iran, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 11:00 am

I’m sure the OIC will rush to embrace this idea, and by next Christmas, we’ll see foreign workers in Saudi Arabia holding Mass.

EU Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering called on Arab governments on Tuesday to allow Christian churches to be built in their countries in the same way that mosques can be built in Europe.

In Saudi Arabia, at the end of a tour of Gulf countries to boost cooperation between the two regions, Poettering said Arab governments need to be more tolerant of other religions.

“It is vital that we get a better understanding of the Islamic culture,” he said.

“But it’s a two-way road. We ask for tolerance for Christians … in the Arab world. It’s mutual.”

Actually, it’s not. Just ask our buddy Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who gave the “alternative” Christmas message in England. (And excuse me, but WTF is an “alternative” Christmas message, and why, exactly, is there one? Do you think I care that the Queen wishes her subjects a happy Christmas but doesn’t speak to me on Hanukkah? It’s not my religion. Go about your business and be happy, just leave me out of it, is my motto.)

On this difficult and challenging journey of man from dust to the divine, He did not leave humanity to its own devices. He chose from those He created the most excellent as His Prophets to guide humanity.

[...] We believe, Jesus Christ will return, together with one of the children of the revered Messenger of Islam and will lead the world to love, brotherhood and justice. The responsibility of all followers of Christ and Abrahamic faiths is to prepare the way for the fulfilment of this divine promise and the arrival of that joyful, shining and wonderful age. I hope that the collective will of nations will unite in the not too distant future and with the grace of the Almighty Lord, that shining age will come to rule the earth.

In spite of it looking like Mad Mahmoud is talking about Jesus in Christian terms, he is not. And please note that when he says “Abrahamic faiths,” he does not mean the people of Israel, or Jews that support them. Because in his address to the UN he quite plainly stated that Zionists have no religion. He is talking about it from the Islamic point of view, specifically, from his belief in the return of the Mahdi, in which Jesus is subordinate to him.

And there’s also this part of his speech, which, if I’m not mistaken, is telling me that I’m not part of the world community because I don’t accept the teachings of Jesus. And, gee, now that I think about it, there’s a whole country full of people who don’t accept the teachings of Jesus or that nameless other prophet that he keeps talking about in this speech. Of course, he could be talking about Buddhists and Hindus, but I suspect he’s not thinking about them when he says this:

Now as human society faces a myriad of problems and a succession of complex crises, the root causes can be found in humanity’s rejection of that message, in particular the indifference of some governments and powers towards the teachings of the divine Prophets, especially those of Jesus Christ.

If you did not already know, Muslims believe that Jews rejected the teachings of the prophets, and when they say that, they mean the Hebrew prophets that Islam has claimed for its own. If only those pesky Jews had converted to some other religion, we wouldn’t have the troubles of the world today. Where have I heard that before? Oh, that’s right. On the neo-Nazi sites. But he also slams any government that has not accepted the teachings of Mohammed, in a way that is subtle enough that the Juan Cole’s of the world will be able to call the Robert Spencers paranoid and disingenuous. As for me, I’ll put myself squarely in Spencer’s camp.

The other part of the speech that got wide play is this one:

If Christ were on earth today, undoubtedly He would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers.

Yeah, those “bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers”? They’re the U.S. and Israel. If Jesus were alive today, he’d be living in Israel, but not in Bethlehem or Nazareth. Jews aren’t allowed to live there. My guess is he’d be in Jerusalem, and a Likudnik, as he was a religious Jew. (Ill-tempered? Say what? Did he just call Americans and Israelis crabby?)

Overall, Mad Mahmoud scored yet another propaganda victory. His proponents will insist that I’m misreading his speech, that Robert Spencer is an Islamphobe and by quoting him I’m an Islamophobe, too, and that Ahmadinejad really doesn’t want the destruction of Israel and the conversion to the whole world of Islam.

They will be wrong.

As to the EU parliament president on a response from Islamic nations about building churches there? Not in your lifetime, pal. Or your children’s. Or your children’s children’s. In other words: Merry Christmas, infidel.

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12/22/2008

Second light

Filed under: Holidays, Israel, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 10:29 pm

Something different from my usual virtual menorah: Pictures from a Chanukah party I attended tonight. Four of my seven students from last year were there, as well as one of my favorites from three years ago. And there were new children to meet. There was a ton of food, nearly all of it fried. My contribution was my home-made potato chips, which were gone long before dinner. Hours to make, minutes to eat.

Second light

It was a BYOM party: Bring your own menorah. Josh’s parents didn’t notice that line on the invitation, so I let him light my menorah. I love the look of utter concentration on his face.

Second light

This is all of the younger kids. The grinning boy in the back is my guy Andy, the host of the party, who is a lot sweeter than the tough-guy act he puts on. (The smile really gives him away.) Which is not to say he can’t be tough. Just that he can’t fool me. Andy has a motorcyle menorah. Very cool. Emily is going to be annoyed that her face is half-hidden, but this was the best of the group shots. Minus two points to Megan (tall girl, back row) for forgetting that Shehechiyanu is only said on the first night. Next to half-hidden Emily is Megan’s sister Alana, who should have been my student last year but who went to a different synagogue, and in the front row is Libby, Josh’s twin. Libby and Josh were the fifth set of boy-girl twins I had in six years of teaching. What are the odds of that? (Sorry, don’t recall the names of the other two boys, who are friends/neighbors and weren’t former students of mine. Wait–the little one is Anthony, I think.)

Second light

One more picture of Josh concentrating. Lighting candles is serious business when you’re a fifth grader.

I had a wonderful time. I’m still smiling. And the kids all got (sigh) taller. But it was lovely seeing them and their parents.

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12/14/2008

Another “disturbed” “extremist” kills another Jew

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Media Bias, Religion — Tags: Muslim anti-Semitism, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 10:23 am

Every time a Jew is murdered by a Muslim who states clearly that he is killing the Jew in the name of Islam, the authorities and the news services fall all over themselves declaring that he was a nutcase, an extremist, or both. Or they play down the attack, refusing to call it what it is: Muslims simply obeying the Koran, which tells them to murder Jews.

“We do not want to predict the result of the investigations … and whether or not the criminal’s motives were political or not,” he told Reuters.

The BBC can’t figure out why a Jew was killed by a Muslim: “Security sources said it was not clear if the killer’s motives were political.”

The AP can’t figure out why a Muslim killed a Jew, either.

A Yemeni police official says a suspected Muslim extremist has been arrested for allegedly shooting and killing a Yemeni Jew.

The official says Moshe Yaish Nahari was gunned down in the northern town of Riydah on Thursday but police have little information about the motive behind the killing.

It’s a mystery. I wonder if we can solve it. Perhaps we should read the Yemeni media reports.

During investigations al-Ubadi said that he warned the Jews in the area through a message telling them they must either embrace Islam, leave the country or be killed, al-Suraihi said.

On Thursday morning, in a market in the area, al-Ubad met with Yahuda, the brother of the grand rabbi of Jews in the province, and held a conversation after which he shoot dead Yahuda.

Of course, the standard excuse is that he was mentally ill. Funny how many mentally ill Muslims kill Jews.

Reasons for the murder might be due to mental illness as al-Ubadi tow years ago killed his wife the case which ended with tribal reconciliation, al-Suraihi said.

Al-Ubadi was also a former pilot in the Yemeni Air Forces but he was dismissed for bad manners and extremist thoughts.

I’m not quite sure what “bad manners” is, but I suspect a bad translation of, perhaps, violent tendencies. The man murdered his wife two years ago, and was not imprisoned because he paid the blood debt to the victim’s family, a really charming facet of Yemeni culture. But also in the Yemeni media story are these facts:

The rabbi claimed all Jews in the two district of Raida and al-Souk al-Jadeed suffer many violations and continuous attacks.

He said that he filed several complaints about this to tribal elders and officials in the area but all went in vein, saying all people are unable to protect us.

“The situation of Jews has more worsened as my brother was killed in the daylight, in a market before the eyes of many people, but none was moved.” The rabbi said.

He said Jews are prevented from carrying weapons and wearing the traditional danger Jampyah.

I don’t know what that means, either. If any of my readers know any Yemeni Jews, perhaps they could find out for me.

Arutz Sheva didn’t seem to have any trouble finding the reason why a Jew was killed by a Muslim, either.

Moshe Nahari, a Torah teacher and a well-known figure in Yemen’s Jewish community, was murdered on Thursday morning in Reida, a city north of the capital city, Sanaa. According to the Arabic daily Ash-Sharq il-Awsat, Nahari’s attacker called out, “Jew, receive the message of Islam” before shooting at him.

[..] The murderer fired on Nahari several times, made sure he was dead, and then waited for police to come. Ash-Sharq il-Awsat identified the killer as Abed el-Abdi, a former pilot. El-Abdi murdered his wife two years ago, but was not imprisoned because he agreed to give his wife’s family financial compensation.

Yemeni officials said the shooter who killed Nahari was deranged. The shooter was arrested, and allegedly told police he had killed Nahari because “Those Jews need to become Muslim.”

The Jewish community in Yemen has been under direct threats by Muslims for quite some time now.

Jewish residents of the Saada region in northern Yemen have received explicit threats to leave the area within 10 days from followers of radical cleric Hussein Badr Eddin al Houthi, according to the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan.

Following complaints from the threatened Jews, a meeting of the local authorities and the district’s sheikhs was held.

The Jews demanded they be treated as equal Yemenite citizens, and at the end of the meeting a religious verdict determining the relationship between them and the Muslims was given.

This verdict, which was also signed by Jews, did not guarantee them immunity from threats.

So after a little digging, we find that the reason a Muslim killed a Jew in broad daylight, in the marketplace, is because his religious leaders told him to do so. Not that he’s crazy. Not that he’s an “extremist.” But that he’s being a good Muslim, according to his own clerics.

The story linked above is from January of last year. Yemeni Jews have been in the country at least since the second century of the common era, and according to their legends, since the time of Solomon. Yet another thousands-year-old Jewish community, destroyed by Islam—the “religion of peace” that neither forcibly converts people, nor threatens “People of the Book,” who are supposedly under Muslim protection.

Lies, whitewashed by the world media, which I will detail in another post.

Comments (9)

12/05/2008

Chabad massacre: They did try to kill the baby

Filed under: Jews, Religion, Terrorism — Tags: Jews, Terrorism — Meryl Yourish @ 10:30 am

I have not written about the Mumbai terrorist attack for a variety of reasons. There is a half-finished essay that is waiting for the right words before you can see it. One of the things I wondered was why the terrorists didn’t murder Moshe Holtzberg. They never stopped at murdering children before. Today, I discovered that the reason: They probably thought they had killed him.

Samuel says she emerged early the next afternoon, when she heard Moshe calling for her. She found the child crying as he stood between his parents, who she says appeared unconscious but still alive.

Based on the marks on Moshe’s back, she believes he was struck so hard by a gunman that he fell unconscious at some point as well.

Sandra Samuel is a righteous woman. She stands very high in contrast to the subhumans who killed Rabbi and Rebbetzin Holtzberg. And Moshe? Well, he’s been traumatized. He may get over it, but rest assured, he will always know that his parents were murdered by terrorists. As to how this will cause him to react when he is grown, well, only time will tell.

In the aftermath of the attacks, Moshe asked for his mother continuously, Samuel says, and he is learning to play again — though he likes the nanny close by. And while she still has nightmares of the horrific siege that took hold of Mumbai, Samuel, a non-Jew and native of India, said she will stay in Israel for as long as Moshe needs her.

Time, and thoughts like these:

“I vow that we will avenge the deaths of Gabi and Rivki,” announced Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Chabad’s educational arm, from New York, referring to Mumbai emissaries Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka.

“But not with AK-47s, not with grenades and tanks. We will take revenge in a different way,” Kotlarsky said.

“We will add light. We will add good deeds. We will make sure that there is not one Jewish man who does not put on tefillin. We will make sure that there is not one Jewish woman who does not light candles.

Remember that, when you look at this, and then think of the funerals of Palestinians, and the howls for revenge you hear from the crowds there.

Moshe

I don’t always light Shabbat candles. I will make sure to do so tonight, to honor their memories.

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12/03/2008

Water out of thin air

Filed under: Israel, Religion — Tags: Water — Soccerdad @ 11:00 am

There’s the high tech way of doing it.

The technology, Bar tells ISRAEL21c, works in three steps: first is the absorption of air’s humidity, then the removal of water from a solid desiccant (silica based gel granules) which holds the water, and third, condensation. The absorption of the humidity is an exothermic process (involving heat release), humidity absorption occurs spontaneously, and only minimal energy is used as the air is pumped through the unit. Heat recovery techniques are integrated as part of the condenser, reducing the cost for producing water to a reasonable price, similar to other processes, such as desalination.

And the low tech (high faith) too.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

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